Red by Virgin America

Virgin America: Red is the brand name for Virgin America’s in-flight entertainment system. And Red is pretty cool. Virgin America already has WiFi on all of its planes and every seat has a power outlet. Why other airlines make us treasure hunt for seats with power outlets I don’t know. On-demand food ordering? Virgin’s got it. Push a button, wait a few minutes, and someone with a smile comes to you with the food you ordered. Flying with Virgin sounds better than being at a restaurant! OK, so what else is so special about Red? Here’s a list:

Panasonic EcoV2 capacitive touch screens you can pinch and swipe. Airlines are catching up to the rest of the world: they are 720p HD capable.

Enough storage for full seasons of popular shows — like the first two seasons of Orange is the New Black and House of Cards — for when you’re on a really long flight.

More games, like Asteroids and Pac-Man. I know someone who would be really happy about this!

Listen to surround sound with your headphones. 3D surround sound is encoded by Dysonics. You can watch Insurgent, Run All Night and Game of Thrones (episodes one and two of season 5) in surround sound.

Red is in Beta; Virgin Atlantic will equip 18 planes with Red by the end of 2015. In 2016 the entire Virgin fleet will be upgraded to Red.

Virgin Atlantic sounds like a company doing all the right things to make the experience of flying better. Now if we could just dock our smartphones and tablets, tap an updated Virgin Atlantic app that gives us access to all of this, and stream it to our virtual reality headsets…